Alabama

Podium meet will provide Tide gymnasts a postseason preview

Alabama's Marissa Gutierrez competes on the vault during a March 19, 2010 meet against Michigan at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Ala. A sophomore from Houston, Gutierrez is one of 15 gymnasts from Texas who have come to Alabama. (The Birmingham News / Hal Yeager)

TUSCALOOSA -- The sixth-ranked Alabama gymnastics team will go above and beyond dual-meet competition at 7:30 p.m. today when it competes in the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.

Above: A la postseason meets, the four-team competition will take place 4 feet above the floor of the Fort Worth Convention Center arena.

Beyond: All four teams practiced Friday in the arena and will compete all at once tonight.

"For a young team like we have, this is a great opportunity to experience what it will be like at the SEC Championships and the national championships," Alabama coach Sarah Patterson said.

The Crimson Tide, ranked No. 2 in the nation in vault and No. 3 in floor exercise, will compete against No. 25 LSU, No. 12 Nebraska and Missouri. At the 2010 NCAA Championships, Alabama finished third, followed by Nebraska (seventh), LSU (ninth) and Missouri (12th). LSU, which defeated Alabama last season in Baton Rouge, La., will visit Alabama on March 11.

This is called a podium meet. With the equipment raised on a platform, each of the four apparatus will have a different feel.

"The podium makes everything a little bouncier, a little springier," Patterson said. "There's definitely an adjustment, and I think for our young team, the chance to experience this now, during the regular season, before we get to the end, will really benefit us in the long run."

The Tide is 3-0 in dual meets, in which the two teams alternate, with one gymnast competing at a time. Competing all at once will be a new experience for Alabama's eight freshmen, five of whom have participated in at least one event this season.

This will be the first meet in Texas in the 37-year history of Alabama's program. Despite the fact that the large state has only one college gymnastics program (Texas Woman's University), Texas is a hotbed for elite gymnastics clubs, and it has been a fertile recruiting ground for Alabama.

The first was Alli Beldon in 1985. Ten Tide Texans became All-Americans and three -- Stephanie Woods of Austin (1994-97), Andreé Pickens of Houston (1999-2002) and Ashley Miles of San Antonio (2003-06) -- combined for seven individual NCAA championships.